


Turn Back the Pendulum

by carsneedle



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23744092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carsneedle/pseuds/carsneedle
Summary: “Soshireikan, warrants for the arrests of Urahara-taicho and Tsukabishi-taicho have just been issued by Central Room 46.”How could it be possible that her heart was beating so quickly?  It seemed like it should have burst out of her chest by that point.Never let them see you struggle to maintain your calm. Yoruichi didn’t get to where she was now by showing her feelings.
Kudos: 4





	Turn Back the Pendulum

Yoruichi Shihoin, the Goddess of Flash, taicho of Division 2, soshireikan of the Stealth Force, felt powerless for once in her life. Despite her inner turmoil, she appeared to be calm. Her covered head was tilted up at a slight angle, her bare shoulders straight. Nobility, born and bred, even in a situation that she felt that she had no control over. Her clothing, tightly fitted to her body, made no noise as she walked briskly and with purpose. Her dark eyes, the only part of her visible beneath her white uniform, barely saw the hall before her; they were turned on inner thoughts.

“Soshireikan, warrants for the arrests of Urahara-taicho and Tsukabishi-taicho have just been issued by Central Room 46.”  
How could it be possible that her heart was beating so quickly? It seemed like it should have burst out of her chest by that point.   
Never let them see you struggle to maintain your calm. Yoruichi didn’t get to where she was now by showing her feelings.

“And what are the charges?” she asked. She was very careful to maintain a downcast glance, as though she was uninterested in the report. “What is he accused of doing?”

The heat was rising to her cheeks, fueled by the increase in her heartbeat. She hoped the dim light of her office would hide it. If she was going to get him out of this one, if they were going to get out of this one, no one would have to suspect her knowledge of his research. No one could suspect that she was involved with him.

“Hirako-taicho, Aikawa-taicho, Yadomaru-fukutaicho, Kuna-fukutaicho, Muguruma-taicho, Otoribashi-taicho, Hachigen Ushoda and Sarugaki-fukutaicho have all been turned into Hollows, soshireika. Urahara-taicho and Tsukabishi-taicho are accused of doing it!”

His own fukutaicho? How could anyone believe such lies?  
She knew what he was up to, and she knew that it had nothing to do with the crimes they were apparently trying to blame him for. Had someone figured out what he was really doing and decided to take him out of the picture? How much danger was he in? She knew that they probably had grounds to execute him, based on these false charges.

“Thank you for the report”, she said. “You can go.” 

The door to her office shut. She waited at her desk for five minutes, allowing the hall to clear. Then she pulled her headpiece up so that it covered her entire face, except for her eyes. What she was about to do would require her to remain anonymous until she was ready to make herself known. There was no one outside the door. What would security be like inside the chamber? she wondered. Probably minimal. The less people involved in a conspiracy, the better. She had to admit it to herself; she would have preferred if someone had been guarding the door. She could have used the workout, could have used someone to fight to check her adrenaline levels. Normally, she could easily maintain control over her emotions in the heat of a battle, but at the current moment she could feel her legs trembling slightly beneath her. She was literally shaking in her boots. What was wrong with her? What was she so afraid of?

Yoruichi smiled to herself beneath her headpiece. Kisuke was the only one who could make her feel this way. She pictured his smiling face in her mind, his blond hair falling in front of his eyes. The stupid grin he seemed to reserve only for her. The look that seemed to make her forget everything else. With a picture of him in her mind, she tried the door knob. Locked, just as she figured, but it never hurts to try the easy way in first. Now the question was, should she go for subtle, or make her presence known? She would have the element of surprise on her side for a moment. Her uniform would hide her identity, so she should have enough time to assess the situation before she made another move.

Would she be too late? They probably wouldn’t want to execute him secretly; his crimes would be made known to the public if they really wanted him to take the blame for something. He had to be still alive. All of the preparations she had made for their escape would have been in vain if anything had happened to him. She had to believe that they could get through this one. To hell with being subtle. She was angry now, she had to see him. Had to hold him close and hear his heartbeat. Had to feel his breath tickle her ear as he whispered that he was all right, teased her for worrying about him.

She wasn’t quite sure what the kido lightning did. Maybe it melted the lock. Or maybe it just blew the door knob clean off. It didn’t matter to her much as the door opened.  
There were stairs in front of her. They were dark, but the light coming in from the hall behind her was enough to guide her down them. The chamber was shadowy, but in front of her she could make out Tessai Tsukabishi and Kisuke standing in squares of light down in a pit. Above them sat the members of the Chamber, each concealed behind a screen. As she walked through the door, she could hear Kisuke speaking “Wait a minute, that’s….” He broke off, aware that someone had entered the Chamber. He turned his head to look over his shoulder. To Yoruichi’s amusement, he looked a little surprised. Didn’t he know that she’d come for him?

The members of Central Chamber 46 seemed to have noticed her too. “Who are you?” One of them boomed authoritatively. “Who gave you permission to enter during the inquiry? Get out, you filth!!”  
Filth? Yoruichi thought to herself. Is that the thanks you get for trying to rescue people? Apparently they didn’t know who she was yet. She guessed that it was time to show them. A little bit of shunpo would do the trick.

Within the next second, she was down in the pit, standing between Kisuke and Tessai. She grabbed each of their arms and within the next few seconds, they were back at the top of the stairs. Yoruichi had to congratulate herself; they didn’t call her the Goddess of Flash for nothing. 

The three said nothing until they reached the underground room beneath Sokyoku Hill, the room where she and Kisuke used to play every day when they were kids, the room where they had trained and become stronger.

“Thank you, Yoruichi,” Kisuke said. She yawned, stretching and removing her headpiece. “No need to thank me,” she said nonchalantly, as though he was thanking her for something as simple as passing the salt. “And I’ll refrain for the moment from kicking you for not taking me with you last night,” she told him with the same breezy attitude. She reveled in the expression on his face. She felt as though he owed her something, and this was excellent pay back.

Then she gestured to the pile of bodies in the corner. “I brought all 8 of them here, along with the new gigai you were working on. Now, get on with it, with the best solution to the worst situation that you’d thought of since you heard about this from Hirako.”

“So you know everything, “Kisuke said. His head was hanging down as he stared at the ground, and she thought he sounded tired. “What an unpleasant person.” Just when she thought he seemed defeated. “You’re one to talk,” she retorted. Kisuke ignored her comment and turned to the kido corps taicho. “Tessai, please cast temporal suspension on Hirako and the others,” he said. “Then create a 2-3 layer barrier around us. Within 20 hours, I’ll create gigais for the two of us, as well as Hirako and the others, in order to quarantine our soul powers.”

“What about Yoruichi?” Tessai asked. She hadn’t really thought about what she would do next. She had been pretty focused on trying to get things ready for Kisuke and Tessai to escape. But she realized that she couldn’t remain in the Soul Society. She didn’t want to go on living her life as if nothing had happened. “Don’t worry about me,” she said, grinning. “I’ll escape somehow.”  
“We’ll hide out on Earth, and take our time solving this. I swear. I’ll find a way to reverse this ‘hollowfication’”, Kisuke said. “They were going to exile me to Earth anyway, so why not go?”

“I’m coming with you, you know,” Yoruichi told him. Kisuke looked away. “I can’t ask you to do that, Yoruichi. I can’t ask you to give up everything and just leave.”  
“I wasn’t asking for your permission!” “They don’t know that you had anything to do with us escaping yet, do they? You can still go back! You have a duty to the Soul Society, and to your family, and I won’t get in the way of that.”

“No, Kisuke. The point is that I can’t go back. I won’t go back! I won’t just go back to my life and pretend that you aren’t important to me!” She hasn’t meant to get all emotional, but calm reasoning and logic just weren’t going to work anymore. She couldn’t hold back anymore.  
“ Please, Yoruichi.”  
“No!”  
“I won’t drag you into this. You’ll be safe as long as you stay here and don’t get involved!”  
“I already am involved, you fool!” she shouted. She moved closer to him, grabbed his arm. “I rescued you, didn’t I? And you’re right; they don’t know it was me. Maybe they’ll figure it out, maybe they won’t. I don’t plan on waiting around to find out. I can disappear, if I want to. I can turn into a cat, remember? Are they going to search for every black cat on Earth to try and find me?”  
Kisuke didn’t seem to have anything to say. He put his hand on top of hers, prying his sleeve free from her grasp. Without the cloth to hold on to, she gripped his hand instead.

“Soi Fon is more than capable of handling things in my place,” she said softly. “They don’t need me here.”  
Kisuke sighed and then smiled. “I should know better. I never could do anything to change your mind once you’ve made it up.”  
Yoruichi smiled back at him. “It’s a good thing you don’t know any better.”


End file.
